Apr. 22, 2014
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A 1982 file photo of Wayne Williams, Atlanta slaying suspect. / AP

by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

ATLANTA - When it comes to protecting children from predators, this city has a dark history.

Now, some here fear that without urgent action, Atlanta and its suburbs risk reliving one of the most painful chapters in their history.

Across the metro region for the past several weeks, adult strangers have been trying to lure children into their vehicles. Several of the attempted abductions occurred near schools. In most instances, the children ran away to safety; but in one case, a 9-year-old boy told police he was abducted outside his home, driven around for more than an hour and released unharmed.

Last month, the Atlanta Public Schools started a safety campaign, including robo-calls, letters to parents with safety tips and radio and television announcements, aimed at students who ride the bus or walk to school. A group calling itself the 360 Movement passed out fliers with the description of one suspect and his vehicle near two of the schools where incidents occurred.

"We have to be proactive to prevent this to save our children," Islord Shasun, a member of 360 Movement, told WXIA-TV in Atlanta. "There are crazy, sick people out there."

There are crazy, sick people out there.

His words resonate in a city where, barely two generations ago, a nightmare played out.

The Atlanta Child Murders. The Missing and Murdered Children's cases: Between 1979 and 1981, at least 28 children and young adults vanished from Atlanta's streets, their bodies turning up days or weeks later - strangled, asphyxiated, shot, bludgeoned, stabbed.

Wayne Williams was arrested in 1981 and convicted the following year in two of the murders. He was thought to be implicated in a dozen other slayings, and the city eventually moved on.

But that kind of experience never really leaves you. It became a part of who we are.

"It's definitely in the Atlanta psyche," says William Boone, a political scientist at Clark Atlanta University.

Derrick Boazman, a radio talk show host on WAOK-AM and a former Atlanta city councilman, is among a group of community activists offering a $10,000 reward for information about the incidents.

"There have been at least 12 different instances in the metro area," Boazman says. "We're very concerned."

Layered atop the psychic scars of a dark history is a current reality: Atlanta, home of the world's busiest airport, is one of the nation's hubs for child sexual prostitution.

To be sure, the parental concern seen here now is nothing like the fear that gripped the city during the child murders. Parents were loath to let their children out of their sight, and a child coming home later than expected, especially after dark, could spark pure, chest-caving terror. What had been popular teen hangouts, like the ice-skating rink at the Omni, became all but ghost towns.

I was in college at the time, and one of our journalism assignments was to shadow real-life reporters. Twice I tailed reporters from The Atlanta Journal, and we visited one terrified parent after another as the journalists sought to understand what was happening. Even now, I remember the fear in those mothers' eyes.

One of the lasting legacies of the Atlanta Child Murders was a perception that police, authorities and the media were slow to respond - that no one wanted to connect the killings and investigate them as the likely work of a serial killer until the mothers of some victims demanded accountability. The city seems to be avoiding that kind of foot-dragging now.